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Java IO & NIO - Files.createFile() Examples

[Last Updated: Nov 5, 2025]

Java IO & NIO Java Java API 

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Class:

java.nio.file.Files

java.lang.Objectjava.lang.Objectjava.nio.file.Filesjava.nio.file.FilesLogicBig

Method:

public static Path createFile(Path path,
                              FileAttribute<?>... attrs)
                       throws IOException

Creates a new and empty file, failing if the file already exists.

Parameters:
path - the path to the file to create
attrs - an optional list of file attributes to set atomically when creating the file
Returns:
the file


Examples


package com.logicbig.example.files;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;

public class CreateFileExample {

    public static void main(String... args) throws IOException {
        Path dir = Files.createTempDirectory("my-dir");
        Path fileToCreatePath = dir.resolve("test-file.txt");
        System.out.println("File to create path: " + fileToCreatePath);
        Path newFilePath = Files.createFile(fileToCreatePath);
        System.out.println("New file created: " + newFilePath);
        System.out.println("New File exits: " + Files.exists(newFilePath));
    }
}

Output

File to create path: C:\Users\Joe\AppData\Local\Temp\my-dir495841472124666354\test-file.txt
New file created: C:\Users\Joe\AppData\Local\Temp\my-dir495841472124666354\test-file.txt
New File exits: true




Attempting to create file which already exits:

package com.logicbig.example.files;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;

public class CreateFileExample2 {

    public static void main(String... args) throws IOException {
        Path dir = Files.createTempDirectory("my-dir");
        Path fileToCreatePath = dir.resolve("test-file.txt");
        Path newFilePath = Files.createFile(fileToCreatePath);
        //creating same file again
        Path newFilePath2 = Files.createFile(newFilePath);
    }
}

Output

java.nio.file.FileAlreadyExistsException: C:\Users\Joe\AppData\Local\Temp\my-dir3718395074989233340\test-file.txt
    at sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.translateToIOException (WindowsException.java:81)
    at sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.rethrowAsIOException (WindowsException.java:97)
    at sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.rethrowAsIOException (WindowsException.java:102)
    at sun.nio.fs.WindowsFileSystemProvider.newByteChannel (WindowsFileSystemProvider.java:230)
    at java.nio.file.Files.newByteChannel (Files.java:361)
    at java.nio.file.Files.createFile (Files.java:632)
    at com.logicbig.example.files.CreateFileExample2.main (CreateFileExample2.java:20)

See Also